CAIRO
SIDEWALK STORIES Tales, heritage, life and public spaces from El-Khalifa neighborhood.
by Urbego, the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute and 10Tooba
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"Yes. Cairo is jazz; not lounge jazz, neither the commodified lobby jazz that works to blanch history. It is the heat of New Orleans and the gristle of Chicago; It's the jazz that is beauty in its destruction of the past. The jazz of an unknown future, the jazz that promises freedom from the bad old times." O. R. Hamilton
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Urbego
DEDI
An international collaborative platform for young urban professionals. As a self-driven community of architects, planners, sociologists, graphic designers, engineers, economists, amongst other professions, they develop initiatives that research and test contemporary ideas, strategies, tools and solutions to urban development issues. They are united by a passion to improve urban life and the processes and conditions that create them. Urban development should provide the opportunity for more equal, participatory and shared urban life for all. Since 2012 Urbego has developed 4 core methodologies, conducting numerous participatory programmes, including 20 workshops, exhibited its results in 16 countries and engaged 300 young professionals along the way. They've built a strong community with a broad skill set and a drive to develop initiatives; from cafĂŠ talks to walkability strategies to public space designs.
The Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute is an intergovernmental body funded by the Danish Arab Partnership Programme. The core task of the Institute is to promote political, social, and cultural understanding between Denmark and Egypt and Europe and the Arab World, with dialogue as the main tool. With its diverse portfolio of projects within its three priority areas: civic engagement, arts and culture, and media; it works towards engaging a wide and continuously expanding group of partners representing governmental and civil society institutions in accordance with its Principles of engagement. Being located in Cairo with a staff that has a detailed knowledge and insights into the different priority areas secures the quality of the work of the Institute and its ability to continuously adjust to the changing circumstances under which the Institute is working.
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Megawra An architectural hub a space for young students and architects that is also coming to the public. It is a platform for holistic debate on the field of architecture and urbanism with a focus on it as art, theory, praxis and cultural heritage and its role in promoting sustainability and social responsibility in the built environment.
10 tooba An interdisciplinary group of built environment professionals, with similar roots in architecture and engineering, and developed expertise in anthropology, participatory planning, legislation and policy. They work closely with communities in Egypt, and they mostly deals with applied research, where a continuous loop of lessons learned from the ground inform their analysis, as well as their research informs their applications. They produce knowledge on the built environment in Egypt with a focus on issues such as housing, urban upgrading, urban history, public space, services and transport. Common threads that cut through their main topics are social justice, sustainability, informality, climate change, urban design & management practices and appropriate technology. They work with deprived communities throughout Egypt with a focus on those in informal areas, rural and peri-urban villages, and historic urban cores.
Interazioni Urbane An association of social promotion, composed of young architects and enriched by the daily procurement of professionals from other social disciplines. The main objective of the projects and initiatives is the analysis of creative solutions to intervene in the disadvantaged contexts of contemporary urban realities and to raise citizenship awareness of human rights in their universality. The Association pursues the field of international cooperation in the areas of recovery and urban regeneration.
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SIDEWALK STORIES introduction by Giulia Maci and Pierluigi Landi
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All of this, mixed with an apparently untoppable growth, is apparently generating a new counter reaction: an increasing demand for public spaces where people can re-discover and re-create the social dimension in fast expanding and alienating cities, as it tends to happen in every major city worldwide.
airo is a city that has definetly proven the importance of public space over the past few years. It started with Tahrir Square, that firstly became a gathering place for protesters, and then it transormed to vibrant public space and a global symbol of democracy and social engagement. After that moment, along Cairo's streets and open spaces many new communication opportunities were born, and with them new trust among communities, residents and public authorities.
The city currently includes 81 informal settlements with 8 million people living amongst an additional 16 million inhabiting the capital. As consequence to all this, the majority of Cairenes have become alienated from their own city as they cannot recognize anymore a common ground where they can come together as friends, neighbors and citizens. Many places are unfortunately neglected and left to decay; some of them even waiting to be demolished in order to make space to new business districts or standardized structures.
Unfortunately all that faded quickly because there has been an increasingly lack of care towards Cairo public spaces; this has resulted in creating an environment tainted by overcongestion and large informal expansions, where there's now less and less consideration for heritage preservation, which should not be only considered as a way to sustain the products of the past, but also as a way to keep bringing the beautiful and colorful culture in everday life, while engaging citizens in the process of highlighting the social construction of space.
However, it is necessary to get closer, in order to understand the real potential of this city, still filled with beauty. It's also important to understand what was lost along the way, and why, as well as experience different manifestations of activities and spatial overlaps.
In addition to all that Cairo witnessed something that distrupted the concepts of public spaces even more: unlike what happens in other metropolis parks are now fenced, guarded and impossible to enter, and waterfronts are privately owned. Important heritage sites are being forgotten, and roofs are rented as upright fifth faรงades for advertising. Tahrir Square lost the beautiful identity that was found with the revolution: now is a large traffic roundabout with a military-controlled park that stays always empty. In a megalopolis of nearly 23 million inhabitants, (public) space has become a commodity and, most importantly, a property.
We decided to map, observe and analyse urban dynamics and people stories inside El-Khalifa, a neighborhood that presented itself as a good example of a neglected area as a part of the Islamic Cairo core. This neighborhood includes some major monumental buildings such as the Ibn Tulun Mosque, Keretleyya House, the Shagaret el Dorr Mausoleum, the Sultan Hassan Mosque and several others significant buildings that witnessed crucial events.
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Public spaces in El Khalifa still accommodate mixed activities, from daily events, both commercial and recreational, to seasonal activities or religious ceremonies. Thanks to its current situation, El Khalifa can help in raising arguments applicable to other neighborhoods and public spaces in Cairo, such as questions about accessibility, safety, vitality, land value, ownership and other mixed responsibilities. This journey inside the Khalifa district was made possible with the help of both european and local young architects, designers and sociologists, all sharing their experiences, views and ideas on public spaces planning and design. By walking through this district, hidden within the old town, we discovered streets filled with life, heritage and humanity. Our collaborative strategies were aimed at developing an heritage strategy for the neighbourhood. We quickly discovered that along these streets there's a continuous negotiation for space, were dozens of people struggle daily with a problem of vague ownership, that manifest itself simply through verbal and visual control, as well as voluntary and involuntary interactions. From the tiny and narrow alleyways to the (still relatively narrow) main streets, pedestrians walks every day alongside tuk-tuks, cars and street-vendors, in a succession of un-defined spillovers of ground floors, temporary kiosks, chairs for shisha smokers and improvised cafes. The constant sound of car horns and revving engines are blending with the voices of children playing and the songs of the Muezzins, echoing from loud speakers. We are committed on developing an effective strategy, taking into account all of those layers, rhythms, and local stories. We are focusing on temporary public spaces and walkable areas, as well as activities and opportune interventions, rather than a permanent, centrally designed, space.
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CITY EVOLUTION AND PUBLIC SPACES IN CAIRO
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by Ahmed Zaazaa
Such evolution contributed in dilapidating what was old and, in some cases, vanishing and substituting the old with new structure that resulted a change in the social fabric of the historical neighborhoods. The elimination of the history of Cairo has been in process for the last 3 decades. Oblivion places that once shaped the heart of the city are now either neglected and left to decay, or in the process of demolishing to change into CBDs and standardized structures. This is a result of the perception of the state as a company, and the city as a commodity and the mix between their targets; Profitability or Responsibility. But the organic and compact fabrics kept the values of the public spaces of the still existing historical neighborhoods. The organic fabric encouraged more communal private spaces in the secondary streets, and the compactness helped in more connectivity between neighborhoods, to enhance collective activities in the main streets. The historical fabric has grown to overcome environmental and social needs. Such needs resulted irregularity in the streets and paths that has setbacks, pockets and dead ends, which were potentials for acquisitions these spaces and appropriate the public spaces. From large communal activities as street or squares informal markets, to neighbors activities, as washing and cooking together for females and leisure for males, to more private needs as seating and storages, the public spaces became more viral. These multi-layers of territorial claim over the public spaces in historical neighborhoods of Cairo, unravel the identity of place and reveal the city’s full potentials. Potentials that stress on perceiving the historical neighborhoods as a dynamic place for formulating an infinite number of maps and depart from the concept of the city map as fixed and static.
airo is a mega-city that has been on an ongoing process of growth since more than 4000 years ago. From the ancient settlement of Memphis to Roman's Babylon fortress, and to Islamic rules in the 7th century, which played a big role in shaping Cairo. As the impacts of the city of Fustat and Fatimid Cairo to Mamluks in the 13th century and Ottomans in 16th century, are all still constructing they existing fabrics of Modern Cairo. The city started to witness changes in forms, fabrics and scales in the 19th century, after Mohamed Ali and his grand son; Khedive Ismail, who both had dreams for Cairo to be modernized and to cope the changes that occurred in Europe. Khedive Ismail doubled the size of Cairo by building the existing Downtown on the eastern bank of the river Nile, and started to urbanize rural areas around Cairo, as the river islands and the left bank of the Nile; Giza city and linking Cairo to Bulaq city. Cairo started an unstoppable growth since Nasser in mid 20th century, until today. The size of the city multiplied, until it became one of the largest cities in the world. The economic situation, social order and political approaches of Egyptians resulted incoherence in the shape of the city of Cairo. Also the rapid increase in population not matched by additional new housing units, internal migration from rural to urban centers, deterioration of old parts of the cities without upgrading or equivalent replacement, accumulation of housing shortage over the years, and finally, the increasing gap between the cost of housing and income levels. Between the formal desert cities to the informal settlements that share 65% of the built environment, shared in transforming the shape of the city.
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Lonely, forgotten. Deep within the narrow, unpaved streets of ElKhalifa neighbourhood, stands the oldest mosque in the city, Ibn Tulun. It has survived for more than a thousand years, and because of its location no one visits it anymore.
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Just two men at the entrance. Both very silent. Nobody's inside, and there's no admission fee. It's all quiet. The deafening noise of the city fades away, only to make room for one of the most beautiful places in Cairo. Sacred, Solemn, Wonderfully ordered. Yet lonely, and forgotten.
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EL KHALIFA EVOLUTION, HERITAGE AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
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by Ahmed Zaazaa
l Khalifa is a 1100 years old neighborhood that developed in the Tuluni era, as part of El Qata'e city, which was the Egyptian capital in the 9th century. The neighborhood was initially built to declare a new political era, and to be the capital of the Tuluni rule. Even after Tulun, in the 11th century, Saladdin chose his citadel and new center for ruling, to be in Khalifa neighborhood. By time, the neighborhood included very important political events that were reflected in the huge number of significant buildings, where that was a keystone in listing historical Cairo as a World Heritage by UNESCO. Today, El Khalifa neighborhood is a good example of neglected neighborhoods as a part of the Islamic Cairo core. The neighborhood includes major monumental buildings as Ibn Tulun Mosque, Keretleyya House, Shagaret el Dorr Mausoleum, Sultan Hassan Mosque and a number of significant buildings that witnessed crucial events. The public spaces are still accommodating mixed activities, from daily activities for commercial and recreational, to seasonal activities for religious ceremonies. But the most of these spaces and structures are deteriorating more and more. Sadly, the government does not see much potential of historical neighborhoods, as much as they see in the desert expansions and modernized city core. This puts Cairo under the threat of loosing the historical neighborhoods, instead of preserving its heritage. Heritage preservation is a value in urban development, not only to sustain the responsive products of the past, but also to keep building stronger and more resilient communities, engage citizens in a process of deepening democracy, and highlight the social construction of space.
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While there are numerous tools that can engage communities in the sustaining and upgrading their environments, these have seldom been framed in terms of wider goals of critiquing the dominant modalities of urban development – modalities that do not challenge the structural conditions that perpetuate urban poverty and exclusion. There is an urgent need to apply such principles of preservation to El Khalifa neighborhood, not to loose a major value of Cairo, the Historical City. As one aspect as the public space of El Khalifa neighborhood is such a good example that can raise applicable arguments to other neighborhoods of Cairo. Questions about Accessibility, Safety, Vitality, Territorial Claims, Ownership and mixed responsibilities, to be investigated in order to read and understand a wider span of Cairo, in general.
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Every evening, at sunset. The sky is blue and without a cloud, through the beautiful arches of Megawra's venue, dyed by the orange sun. Flocks of pigeons dart in the air from all directions.
In the El-Khalifa district, as in many other parts of the city, imposing wooden cages stand on the tops of buildings: starting point for one of the main moments of leisure and peace of the day, for those who can not afford better.
Dozens of flocks are freed in the sky and every master, with elaborate whistles and flags of signal, controls his own. A moment of harmony, tranquility, fun. Far away from everyday chaos and problems.
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MAPPING URBAN DYNAMICS AND TOURISM POTENTIAL IN CAIRO by Giulia Maci
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or decades Egypt has been the main draw for international tourists who wanted to visit North Africa. In recent years however the tourism industry in the region has suffered a critical blow following a string of political misfortunes, a major airline disaster, terrorist attacks, and constant church bombings. That reality is visible by extending the eye towards the banks of the River Nile. The marble-encrusted lobbies of Cairo's many luxury hotels overlooking the Nile, once bustling with globetrotting tourists from every corner of the earth, are now mostly empty, and silent. The number of tourists visiting Egypt dwindled from over 14 million in 2010 to just 5.4 million in 2016, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, or UNWTO, costing the country billions. So, while a wave of anti-tourism protests takes place in some of Europe's most popular destinations, Cairo finds itself in a limbo, waiting for tourists to slowly come back. This situation offers an opportunity to reimagine tourism strategies starting from a deep understanding of local tensions and dynamics at an intra-city level. It's with this idea in mind that a team of international and Egyptian urban professionals gathered for a five days laboratory inside El-Kahlifa neighborhood, in Cairo. The laboratory, organized by Urbego and 10Tooba, in collaboration with the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute (DEDI), Megawra and Interazioni Urbane, aimed at exploring and analyzing different urban layers and open spaces interactions, with the purpose of identifying the conditions for place-making and sustainable tourism.
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SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE TOURISM by Giulia Maci
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inding a balance between the use of resources required for tourism development and protection of local culture and resources at tourism destinations is always very difficult. In other words, trade-offs between the tourism industry and other groups of stakeholders, including local inhabitants are issues that need to be considered. Sustainable heritage tourism includes the involvement of the local community, long-term planning, understanding of environmental impacts, as well as harmony between community and tourism goals. Clearly, while preserving a destination's distinctive characteristics, this will generate revenues for local governments, and new employment as well as entrepreneurial opportunities. To benefit further from heritage tourism, it is necessary to create new experiences that are able to attract different kinds of tourists such as eco-tourists, or culture tourists. These experiences can transcend a particular place and even involve partnering with local and international sister cities. Rather than a single formula or framework that fit all scales and types of tourist destinations, it is important to develop heritage tourism strategies and plans starting from tangible (buildings, local shops, open spaces, mobility) and intangible (memories, local heritage potentials, local culture) potentials of a place. Tourists discover local destinations and take part in traditional cultures, rituals, and craftsmanship. In time, and through tourism, the community becomes aware of the commercial and social value of their heritage. In exchange, tourism fosters community-based conservation of these resources.
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Empty/dilapidated Workshops Commercial Historic value Megawra venue
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HERITAGE-BASED PLACE-MAKING IN EL KHALIFA NEIGHBORHOOD by Giulia Maci
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act as a wayfinder for tourists and locals, and that help them spotting all the important elements and buildings belonging to the area
l-Kahlifa neighborhood, located at the heart of the heritage site of Islamic Cairo, is one of Egypt's most unique areas. Surrounding the neighborhood, there's an incredible amount of historic and amazing places to visit, from Salah El-Din Citadel to Tekeyet El-Mawlawiya and Ahmad Ibn Tulun Mosque. El-Kahlifa is also one of Cairo's most dense areas, suffering from a worrying lack of public spaces, as well as the complete absence of many basic services, that usually reperesent the standard in modern cities. In addition to the most important and well known monuments, the area includes also many dilapidated buildings that, if restored, could become other symbols of important heritage value.
The different teams then proceeded to map all of the leftover open spaces in the area, by also focusing at studying and understanding current uses, limits and possible potentials; this also included combining direct observations and spatial analysis with interviews made to the people living inside the neighborhood. It is important to notice how much all the different stories and point of views of the residents helped everybody to compose what was the true memory of the spaces. This was crucial in order to identify possible future scenarios: an ancient islamic school, now empty, could be transformed into a brand new workshop dedicated to the local youth; an hidden corner, which is already a meeting point for women, needs to be preserved and improved both on an aesthetical level and on a functional one; an empty square, in which someone already planted small trees and built seats for everybody under the shades, must be enhanced and transformed into a garden for the neighborhood, a backyard where children stop to play together needs to be made safer and appealing. These are just a few of all the possible contexts and consequent improvements encountered.
During the workshop that took place inside the beautiful venue belonging to Megawra, the different teams started to map all the buildings around the surrounding Ibn Tulun Mosque, the main potential attraction of El-Khalifa. The analysis revealed, little by little, the incredibly spreaded amount of hidden urban heritage. In order to make this heritage potential visible both for the locals and the outsiders, by also improving urban accessibility, the various teams proposed to place outside each heritage building some sort of marking, represented by textured tiles following a theme which is inspired by local colors and design. By doing this they aim to provide the area with something that
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We concluded that at this stage of approach there is no need yet for greater and intrusive interventions that leads to define uses and separate functions. All that is needed right now is the placement of light and simples elements and improvements, that aims to emphasize the ture vocation of those spaces, making them more accessible and comfortable. Making the place a better place to live into. The teams then proceeded to catalog all of the commercial and economic activities present in the area and taking place at ground level, including opening times; they also mapped any presence of empty or abandoned shops. Particular care has been devoted to spatial and social presents inside a small food market, where different dynamics of space ownership and subletting of stalls are present. It is only by connecting local economic activities, empty spaces, needs and memories of both inhabitants and heritage buildings, that is possible to define place-making strategies. A tronger concept of cooperation, mixed with good, yet simple initiatives, can truly change the shape of a now almost abandoned place. Heritage-focused place-making helps a diverse range of communities to develop a deeper connection to their shared past, present and future by building spaces where people want to live, work and play. This, in turn, creates economic value, by creating a need for local services and businesses. Place-making and heritage are therefore key strategic assets for city makers to imagine and develop regeneration projects. This workshop, even if small, represent a first step that strongly reflect on these concepts, while exchanging important tools and knowledge , and start gathering ideas and data.
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Photo montage representing a possible non-intrusive and low cost intervention aimed at improving a dilapidated and almost unused open space inside a residential area in El-Khalifa.
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One of the early studies made by one of the teams regarding a small square/junction in the middle of the neighborood. It presented a less than adequate scenario where groceries stalls and pedestrians were mixed in an incredibly narrow and dirty environment clogged with traffic.
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Inspiration - Wayfinding proposed for Venice, Italy.
system
The project places ground tiles to guide tourists into discovering cultural oriented walks across the city, designed to pass by various points of interest and historic buildings.
Photo Credit: Urbego, Venice Smart City Report, 2015
www.urbego.org/venice
Inspiration - Project for creating heritage trails in the Medina of Fez, Morocco. A program of rehabilitation and improvement, with the aim of restoring the area and supporting visits to the historic core.
Photo Credit: KEIOS, Heritage Trails in the Medina Fez, Morocco, 2003-2005
www.keios.it/portfolio/ circuiti-turistici-dellamedina-fez-marocco/
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Studies and sketches about properly dividing motorized traffic and pedestrians (over), as well as organizing small open spaces better making them more livable (under).
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PEOPLE FROM EL-KHALIFA
Mohamed
Ahmed
"I'm not from here; I live in Fayoum and come to El-Kalifa on a weekly basis. I've been selling fish here for two years now, and I strongly think that the whole area needs to be improved drastically. The streets needs to be paved, but we also need functioning streetlights at night; also many buildings needs to be renovated. Apart from local celebrations, where the area become crowded with local, it is a quiet place. Another problem is that everything is becoming more expensive everyday, so business is getting worse unfortunately."
"I live and work here. This is my district and these are my people. If one day they're gonna change everything, these values mustn't change. There's a strong sense of social connection around here, as well as bonds between neighbors. We help each other. We do a lot of celebrations, most of them happening in November. One of the things I like the most is that there are so many good people that help less lucky ones; you can see some distributing meat for free when they slaughter a sheep."
Dried fish seller
Butcher
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Mohamed
Loza
"My family has been living along these streets for over 70 years now. We care about this place, and if it'll ever be filled with tourists and foreigners, we don't want them to see these dilapidated buildings, the cracked pavements and the poor lighting. During Ramadam the atmosphere is beautiful and full of live around here. There are also places that offers shelter and food for people who can't afford it. The Government said that they are going to demolish the deteriorated buildings located here in Al-Ashraaf street, in order to expand the street itself."
"Social bonds and connections are the only things that gives us a sense of safety and security, especially down the street where we live. It is quite quiet and clean, altough since is a very narrow alley it is not marked on municipality's map, so there are no plans of fixing anything; neither the pavement nor the lights (which are for this reason installed and lit by us and our neighbors). Both my father and my uncle worked as butchers; they used to donate some of the meat to poor people, especially during religious celebrations."
Plumber/Technician
Local
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CAIRO
Sidewalk Stories workshop November 2018
Giulia Maci Consuelo Camerota
Elisa Maceratini Pierluigi Landi
Ahmed Zaazaa Mostafa Mohamed Gamie Noha Shaheen Indjy Mohamed Menna Mosaad Sara El-Bayar Marine Medhat Reeham Mourad Nouran El-Marsafy Mohamed El-Mallawany Omar Aboutaleb Ahmed Badr Islam Al-Halawany Sandi Boulos
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CAIRO Sidewalk Stories Project coordinators Giulia Maci, URBEGO Co-Founder and Coordinator Ahmed Zaazaa, 10 Tooba Co-Founder and Coordinator
Book design and photos Pierluigi Landi
Project Partners
Collaborators
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February, 2019
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